Despite the economic recovery, the government's direct tax collections increased by a marginal 3.7% to Rs 1.83 lakh crore in the first eight months of this fiscal compared to the same period a year ago.

There are just four months of this fiscal left to meet the target of Rs 3.7 lakh crore, almost double of the collected amount till November. The target was also revised to Rs 4 lakh crore later by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Finance Ministry officials, however, are confident that the budget target would be met.The economy has stunned everybody by clocking 7.9% growth in second quarter, fuelling hopes that growth would be around 7% this fiscal.

Corporate taxes grew by 3.17% to Rs 1.13 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.09 lakh crore in the same period last year. In the personal income tax segment, the government collected Rs 70,262 crore, up 4.53%.

In November, the tax collections were nearly similar to last year as the mop-up was Rs 10,375 crore compared to Rs 10,346 crore in the month last year. Corporate tax collections declined by about 30% to Rs 3,214 crore against Rs 4,561 crore last fiscal.